THE BRITISH BUDGET

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 91, 17 April 1929, Page 7

THE BRITISH BUDGET

AN ESTIMATED SURPLUS BOOKMAKERS’ TAX REVISED (British Official Wifeless.) RUGBY, April 15. Mr Winston Churchill (Chancellor of the Exchequer) introduced his Budget to-day in the crowded House of Commons. In regard to revenue, he said that last year Customs and Excise showed a deficiency almost entirely accounted for by beer alone. Beer showed a fall of £1,550,000. That was an Exchequer embarrassment, but not a national misfortune. The steady decline in the consumption of alcoholic liquor throughout the land was due to the change in national habits and the growth of alternate beverages. After making full allowance for the trade conditions he could not estimate for more than £79,000,000 in beer revenue this year. He estimated for this year £239,500.000 income tax and £31,000,000 in death duties. Owing to continued Stock Exchange activity and the flotation of new companies, stamps had yielded £2,000,001) above the estimate last year, and he estimated a further growth thi s year, bringing the total to £31.000,000. He estimated to receive this yea! £1,700,000 from excess profits duty and the corporation profits tax and £58,000,090 from, super-tax. The total receipts from taxes he estimated at £674,650,000. From nontaxed revenue he expected to receive £79,299,000, making a total of ordinary revenue of £753.940,000, A Surplus Expected. Ordinary expenditure was estimated at £741,964, so that h c anticipated a surplus of £11,976,000. The expenditure side of the national accounts for the financial year which had just begun was already known. Estimates had been published showing an estimated total outlay comprising the following principal items, namely: Fixed debt charges £350,000,009; Consolidated Fund services £34,000,000, supply services—Army £40,500,000, Navy £55,800,000, Air Force £16,200,000, civil votes £250,500,000. No new taxes would be imposed this year. On thc other hand Mr Churchill stated that the tea duty would be immediately removed, thc cost being £6,000,000. One tax for which he had been responsible was th 0 betting tax. It had been more trouble than it was worth. The tax on bookmakers’ turnover would be immediately repealed. The bookmaker in the future would pay £lO a year for a certificate and in addition ho would pay a license duty of £4O for every telephone installed in his office, A half per cent, would b e levied also on the takings of the totalisator, which he had been led to believe would be a fair equivalent to the license duty on bookmakers. Th ( > yield on these levies would be £850,000 in the current year and £900,000 in the full year. There would be a 25 per cent, reduction in the licenses for the retail sale of beer and spirits, in view of the curtailment of the hours of sale since the war. This would cost nearly £2,00(77273 in a full year. Harbour dues would be reduced. Despite thc above mentioned concessions, Mr Churchill estimated the Budget surplus at £4,095,000. The Position Reviewed. Reviewing the financial position, Mr Churchill said that the period of thc Government’s term of office was chequered. There was the industrial disaster of 1926, but after two years oi quiet there had been a sensible improvement in thc situation. The savings of the smallest class of investors had increased, while the Government had been in power by £170,000,000. Thc cost of living had declined at least 18 points, a symptom on which he dwelt with more confidence than on any other Budget. As indicating the general condition of the masses of the people there was an increased consumption oi tea and sugar. Before the Great War British people consumed annually 6.55 lbs of tea and 81 lbs of sugar per head. Last year they consumed 9.15 pound's of tea and 90Ibs of sugar. That was a record consumption of these commodities.

The balance of trade had sensibly improved the power of the community to export and invest capital abroad, thus fostering the export trade which hu« risen from £86,000,000 in 1924 to £149,000,000 in 1928.

New capital issues for home investments in 1928 showed a growth oi about £100,000,000 over 1924. Whatever might be the future of the particular industries or thc particular localities, we were undoubtedly dwelling in a more powerful, more wealthy and more securely founded community than five years ago. We were steadily improving our conditions and. compared with most of the European countries, maintaining our pre war level. Speaking of the gold standard and cost of living, Mr Churchill admitted that the gold standard carried with it privations as well as th e reward, and his hope and faith was that the privations were minor and temporary and that the reward would be major and permanent. The producing industries as well as the entrepot trade hail derived lasting benefit from the resumption of the gold standard. He referred to the benefits it had conferred on overseas trade, which constituted a stepping stone in time of peace of our economic position. London, despite the sacrifices made by Great Britain during the war, had regained its solid international pre-eminence. We were still the greatest international market and we had been able to maintain money rates lower than those which normally prevailed in New York, while bills of exchange on London, which after the war were so seriously menaced, had in the last few years regained their timehonoured position as thc favourite International instrument and token of confidence. There had been a decline in the cost J of living as the result of our allegiance to sound money. This decline oT 18 points was an increase in thc purchasing power of wages equivalent to a remission of £160,000,000 a year in indirect taxation. In regard to the debt operations of the present Parliament, the Chancellor said that the nominal deadweight or £7,598,000 had fallen to £7,501,000,000. Interest on the debt by the operation

of the sinking fund had been reduced by £9,500,000 a year. The Proposals Explained It is explained that reduction of the harbour duties applies only to the herring industry. The tea duty remission means a reduction in the price to tKe public of 4d a pound. The benefits of the derating scheme will be applied to agriculture forthwith and other industries in October. In view of the criticism that the brewers, distillers, and tobacco manufacturers world benefit from the derating measure designed to assist distressed industries, an increase imposed on the three industries would counterbalance the gains under derating. Mr Philip Snowden, following Mr Churchill, said that the Budget was really an electioneering speech. It was very different from what the House had been led to expect, and a mo/3 shameless piece of election bribery had never been presented by any political party. The speech was in the nature of a swan song. If Ministerialists thought that the Budget would be of advantage fo them at the elections they were underrating the intelligence of the electors. Mr Lloyd George said that he did not complain that it was an electioneering speech. “What I object to is the high moral standard Mr Churchill takes of anyone else who has an toral purpose in mind! He was very severe about my suggesting borrowing £200,000,000, but he himself spent £400,000,000 without providing anything like substantial employment. From the point of view of dealing with the grave situation the Budget is extremely disappointing.’’ The usual Budget resolutions were agreed to and th? House rose.